Creating Effective School-Based Interventions for Pregnant Teenagers

Abstract

This chapter examines how a comprehensive program, addressing medical, educational, and social needs, offered to pregnant and parenting teens in a public school can help them have healthy pregnancies, remain in school, and delay subsequent childbearing. We discuss research evidence from our 18-year longitudinal study of a program that shows both short- and long-term benefits to teen mothers and their children, and we consider components of the program that appear to be responsible for the different kinds of success. Finally, we discuss policy implications, recommending that communities elsewhere would benefit from implementing similar programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)